spiritual books

Have you ever checked out a library book, taken it home, started to read it—and then, felling silly for having taken it home in the first place, ended up finishing it in under twenty minutes? That recently happened to me when reading Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants. It also happened with a little book by Maya Angelou called A Brave and Startling Truth. Read more

Though the month (and the decade!) is nearly done, it’s never too late to brush up on your spiritual literacy. How do you do this, you might ask? The first step might be reading up on your own religion. If you haven’t read your religion’s main doctrines from cover to cover, you might want to do so—especially if you want to be sure that your religion is truly for you.

If you don’t subscribe to any particular faith, you’ve exhausted the texts in your own, or you’re simply interested in other faiths, this is a perfect opportunity to truly study different religions. Where I come from, most people think that Buddhists “worship Buddha,” and with so many green “JESUS” signs around, I always think it would be pretty cool to put up a big green “BUDDHA, “KALI,” or “THOR” sign—not exactly for spiritual reasons, I suppose, but to at least acknowledge that there’s a lot more diversity out there. Read more

If there’s any spiritual concept we could all really learn—or re-learn—these days, it’s the interconnectivity of the planet and its inhabitants. Rather than revolving our lives around the seasons, we are mildly inconvenienced by them; instead of giving thanks for rain, we curse it; and we shoo away wild animals, passing legislation to cut their numbers instead of recognizing them as fellow beings in this experience we all share on Earth.

In All I See is Part of Me, a young boy realizes that the entire universe is part of him—and he, part of it. One day he decides to ask the sun, “Who are you?” To his astonishment, the sun replies, “We are one.” And so the boy embarks on a beautiful journey of discovery in which he learns that the sky, the stars, and everything on Earth are all connected to him. Read more

Like Julia Cameron’s other works, Walking in This World is the kick in the seat of the pants that many artists need to keep coming back to the page every day and really be artists. While not as earth shaking and revelation-causing as The Artist’s Way, this second tome in the Artist’s Way series still focuses on Cameron’s three main tools—morning pages, artist dates and walking—to encourage people to become better artists.

In Walking, Cameron stresses on the need to simply begin, wherever you are. Whether you think you’re suffering from writer’s block, you haven’t painted in twelve years, you’re a former concert pianist turned homemaker—whatever—you can start right now, this moment, and embrace your own art. Just show up to the page, and let God handle the quality while you produce the quantity, advises Julia. Read more